My Dream Dribber

April 22, 2015

– Just what I always wanted! –

Now I love diamonds as much as the next diva-slash-farmgirl, but sometimes it’s the simplest things that make my heart race. I’ve been dreaming up a Dream Dribber for years now and I’ve been whispering its specs into my husband’s ear each spring, usually after I’ve done all my planting. But this year the whispering, the undone planting, and a fortuitous trip to Home Depot for some other junk, collided in what can only be described as a perfect storm for making my Dream Dribber.

A “dibber” [dib-er] /ˈdɪb ər/ is basically a pointy stick for making holes in the ground to plant seeds. I usually call that my index finger. In the past I have tried to spare my raggedy index digit by purchasing its replacement in one form or another. The coolest thing (up until now!) was the Hen & Hammock “Dribber”, which dibbles + drills out four holes instead of one. If you don’t plant much stuff every year, I can understand why this might not appear to be an Earth-shattering discovery. I can vouch, dribbling out four holes all at once makes the most backbreaking thing about planting seeds go, well, four times as fast. But my veggie garden is three-thousand square feet, which makes even the Hen & Hammock look like it belongs in a doll house.

– Before it was pickled cipollini, it was a seed in the ground. –

– Before it was a sink-full of carrots, it was a seed in the ground. –

– Before it was dinner with friends, it was a seed in the ground. –

So we schemed and we plotted, applying both experience and imagination. Over coffee. Running through airports. Wrapping Christmas gifts. Doing the dishes. In Aisle 19, 4 and 22 at Home Depot. We dreamt of a better dribber: A Dream Dribber.

It would have to be lightweight. It would have to make a lot of holes. It would have to have a handle (husband’s idea). The holes would be spaced to meet the needs of my seeds (my idea). We would make one before we made all of the many, many variations of Dream Dribbers I wanted (husband’s idea).